even

Meanings

Adjective

• Flat and level.
• Without great variation.
• Equal in proportion, quantity, size, etc.
• Divisible by two.
• Convenient for rounding other numbers to; for example, ending in a zero.
• On equal monetary terms; neither owing nor being owed.
• On equal terms of a moral sort; quits.
• parallel; on a level; reaching the same limit.
• Without an irregularity, flaw, or blemish; pure.
• Associate; fellow; of the same condition.

Verb

• To make flat and level.
• To equal or equate; to make the same.
• To be equal.
• To place in an equal state, as to obligation, or in a state in which nothing is due on either side; to balance, as accounts; to make quits.
• To set right; to complete.
• To act up to; to keep pace with.

Adverb

• Exactly, just, fully.
• ; rather, that is.

Noun

• An even number.
• Evening.

Related

Similar words

• round
• quits
• quits, square
• flatten, level
• match
• settle
• so much as

Opposite words

• uneven
• odd

Origin

• From Middle English even, from Old English efen, efn, emn, from Proto-West Germanic *ebn, from Proto-Germanic *ebnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁émnos.
• Cognate with West Frisian even ("even"), Low German even ("even"), Dutch even ("even, equal, same"), effen, German eben ("even, flat, level"), Danish jævn ("even, flat, smooth"), Swedish jämn ("even, level, smooth"), Icelandic jafn, jamn, Old Cornish eun ("equal, right") (attested in Vocabularium Cornicum eun-hinsic), Old Breton eun ("equal, right") (attested in Eutychius Glossary eunt), Middle Breton effn, Breton eeun, Sanskrit अम्नस् ("(adverb) just, just now; at once").
• The verb descends from Middle English evenen, from Old English efnan; the adverb from Middle English evene, from Old English efne.
• The traditional proposal connecting the Germanic adjective with the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eym-, (Latin imāgō ("picture, image, likeness, copy"), Latin aemulus ("competitor, rival"), Sanskrit यमस् ("pair, twin")) is problematic from a phonological point of view.
• From Middle English even, from Old English ǣfen, from Proto-Germanic *ēbanþs.
• Cognate with Dutch avond, Low German Avend, German Abend, Danish aften. See also the related terms eve and evening.